1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus equipped with a camera rotatable both in a vertical direction and in a horizontal direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Imaging apparatuses have diversity of applications and are used, for example, as security cameras in various locations including banks, railway stations, supermarkets, convenience stores, and video game arcades.
Security camera devices are generally designed to allow pivotal rotations of a camera in a horizontal direction (hereafter also referred to as panning motions), as well as pivotal rotations of the camera in a vertical direction (hereafter also referred to as tilting motions), with a view to expanding the monitoring area (cited reference 1: Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Gazette No. H06-9264, cited reference 2: Japanese Utility Model Publication Gazette No. H02-4319).
In the typical structure of the security camera device disclosed in these cited references, a camera unit including a camera is supported on a base. The camera unit alone is rotated for the tilting motions, while being rotated integrally with part of the base for the panning motions. The security camera device accordingly requires different pivot support structures for the tilting motions and for the panning motions. In the structure of the cited reference 1, the pivot support structure for the tilting motions is located with a tilting motor as its driving source in the periphery of a vertical pivot axis of the camera. The pivot support structure for the panning motions is built in the base apart from the camera. In the structure of the cited reference 2, both the pivot support structures for the tilting motions and for the panning motions are built in the base.
The separate arrangement of the cited reference 1 is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of space saving. The additional built-in of a tilting motor as the driving source of the pivot support structure for the tilting motions in the base, however, undesirably expands the size of the base and is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of downsizing. In the security camera device of the cited reference 2, a tilting motor as the driving source of the pivot support structure for the tilting motions and a panning motor as the driving source of the pivot support structure for the panning motions are arranged to have a partial positional overlap on a horizontal plane. This has some downsizing effect but is not sufficient at all. There is still room for further size reduction of the security camera device.